Spider

Quick impressions: Combat is much improved over ME1. I can't put my fingers on what exactly, but it's just more fun. A bit more difficult as well, using cover is integral now (playing on Veteran). The control for weapon selection is pretty crappy. Scroll wheel only. As an infiltrator I carry four weapons, but mainly use two. As long as stay to those, it's just scroll up and down, which works decently. But if I want to get the heavy weapon for a bit, I have to first pick out the pistol (with that whole animation) and then the rocket launcher. Why not have a keyboard shortcut for each weapon? Using the spacebar as the action key for everything works surprisingly well. So while sprint, use object, go into cover and jump over cover could have used different keys, it's not really needed and it's kind of nice to only have to remember the one. Whoever thought the planet scanning minigame was a good idea needs to be fired. Especially since it's a fairly integral part of the game (at least if you want to do any research). It's a complete waste of time and not fun in the least. I find it to be even worse than planet exploration in ME1. Haven't encountered many special encounters yet, but the one I did find was pretty funny, with a crashed ship stuck in a cliff. Sort of a platform puzzle, a nice change of pace. Why did I have to download the DLC manually from the website instead of in-game like in DA:O? Especially since it seems like XBox users can download from in-game? Dialogue is much improved. Sheperd actually says what I expect her to say this time around. Well, except some of the paragon choices. They ar a bit strange. Like pulling out a gun and threaten someone. Feels more like a renegade action, but I suppose it's the motivation that counts? Experience works as follows: Each level is 1000 xp. Each major mission (so far anyway) gives you 1000 xp (surprise). Each minor assignment gives you very little xp (40-150 I think). So the 2 levels gained from maxing out the character in ME1 were pretty nice. The mineral bonus was on the low side though, but then I didn't actually finish those quests. All 5000 meant was that I could start researching a little sooner, but it quickly became irrelevant. The cash bonus was nice though. I never thought I'd say this, but I don't miss the conversation skills. Since most players would just max those anyway, it makes sense to base it on paragon/renegade instead. Minigames are too easy. Hacking was hard the first time due to the lack of instructions (as has been mentioned). But they're both fairly simple. I like hacking better than bypassing, but they are both quick affairs, so they work. All in all, the game is a big improvement. It's more streamlined, better paced and more fun. Not that ME1 wasn't fun, but this is simply better. Not in all ways, but in most. The gripes I have are fairly minor (except for the planet scanning, that needs to change for ME3). It's probably the most polished game Bio has released so far. I don't love it the same way I did Dragon Age, but that's since I prefer the gameplay in DAO, not because it's a better designed game. That being said, I think ME2 is great fun and a stellar action game.

I think the main commonality is the idea of retro-future gone horribly wrong. Bioshock set it's sights a little differently (1920s in its artistic style, although the Randian philosophical stuff didn't really emerge until she formed her little cult later on), but the core is that a vision of the future that was trendy at one point in history came true and then went bad. Both games had architecture heavly influenced by Art Deco. So I guess it could be that.

That's not true. Steam has different pricing policies for different regions and Sweden (and the rest of Scandinavia) is in the most expensive echelon, thus the straight conversion from dollar to Euro. VAT has nothing to do with it. They do add VAT though, which they don't in the US. So it has something to do with it. It's not the hole story, but I'm sure a 25% add is something they have thought of. (and they do say in Steam, that europrices are including VAT) But I thought Euro prices were the same all over Euroland?

I don't know, I thought the review of Wet was hilarious, but the ones of Dragon Age and Batman were kinda dull.

You know, if that had been in the game from the beginning, the story would have much more sense.

Twitteriffic if you have Twitter. Balance if you like to keep track of a bank account. Does the touch have GPS as well? Then Layar is cool (although I haven't had the opportunity to use it much).

I did say books to a degree. Yes, there were books in FO3 as well, but they were nowhere near as important as in FO1. First of all, the skill increase in FO1 was significantly higher. Second, skills were much more important in FO1, especially fighting skills. Sure the Bobbleheads increased stats mostly (but there were those that increased skills instead), but I think increasing skills in FO1 and 2 is about as powerful as increasing skills in FO1/2. Don't forget that you could take ten levels of the stat-boosting perk in FO3. Stat points simply weren't THAT hard to come by. Still, my main comparison was more with the operation thingies in FO2.

There were similar things in FO/FO2. The books in both games to a degree, but more specifically the surgery things in FO2 are pretty much exactly the same.

Which was one of the best drm-schemes I've seen, and if it's also efficient it makes sense to jeep it up.

I think there is a special save. I have a savegame that's called "Char_01-50-1-3-3-6-9-2008-26-25.MassEffectSave" that is timed a few minutes after the last autosave so I'd guess that's the one.

By the way, if I play my character through the game a second time (to reach level 60) is it the choices performed in the second playthrough that will carry over or the ones from the first? Since apparently they care about character level in ME2, it'd be nice to max out the character, but if I have to play through the game making the exact same choices again, I'm not sure I'm up for it.

Perhaps not. In my book, Carth is a virtual carbon copy of Anomen. but I usually play female characters the first time through, so I could be colored in that way. Nor do I find the buddy quality in any of the aforementioned characters, except for Alistair. Mostly just find them boring and/or annoying. (Ironically enough, I kinda liked Anomen though, but probably more because he was a very good cleric, rather than his personality)

Shale and HK47 are fairly similar though.

If I were you I'd do some more testing before getting a new heatsink. The problem could very well be something else. What happens when you turn the computer on. Do you get the boot screen? Do you get into the OS at all?

Or you could just add the camp chest mod that some developer released.

I smell a ****storm of Beth fanboys brewing in the distance. Isn't that in reference to Van Buren?

The pop-ups can be disabled changing the UAC settings. I used to get warning messages like those from RivaTuner, but since I realized I didn't need that anymore, it's been all good and I have UAC set to always notify. It's nowhere near as annoying as it was in Vista. As far as the second problem, with the missing icons, you can always check you settings in control panel/notification area icons. It's possible they're set to not appear. Only issue I've had is that my internet would lose connection when under heavy strain, doing the exact same thing under Vista did not have this effect. But once a proper Windows 7 driver was released and installed, this went away.

I've had a Sandisk Sansa for I don't know how long and it still works flawlessly. So cheaper brands doesn't have to mean it'll break after a year. If longevity is a concern, I think getting a player without a built in battery is something to consider, since the battery is what is most likely to give in.

Second playthough is much easier. I'm on my second now and it's a lot easier for me as well (played both on Nightmare). So I think knowledge of the system and the encounters helps a lot. Except with those damned wolves in Lothering. (although kiting with an archer did help, they aren't so tough when they attack one or two at a time). Also, iirc I got no badge for finishing on Nightmare (which was a bit dissapointing truth be told).

Yes, but they were completely moronic and mostly efficient as a distraction rather than a competent fighting force. Besides, you had enough skill points to go around that you didn't have to be just a meleer, you could have both high charisma AND high melee. Also, the xp. Fighting yourself, as opposed to companions, led to more xp and thus a stronger character earlier. I suppose the charisma character caught up eventually when you capped, but by that time it didn't matter, you were pretty much unstoppable anyway.

It didn't fly around for me either, but it did come swooping down at first. So it was the first and only descent that took out Wynne.

In the calculations, tainted blade is put at 0.2 points/cunning. So in order to get the effects you describe you'd need somewhere along the lines of 65 cunning. Now, it's entirely possible that the actual effect is higher than what is used in the calculations. Regardless, the dual dagger cunning build would still beat any strength build. I still agree that a comparison without tainted blade would be more interesting. In regards to backstab, for me Shale managed to hold aggro most of the time against bosses, when I used Stone Roar. And if not, they'd typically go after the mages before the rogue. And while dragons did use all kinds of knock back attacks, I was still doing backstabs 90% of the time, since they kept using their front attack on Shale. Except the High Dragon, that one turned and took a big bite out of my rogue, after downing Wynne on it's first decent. But after that Morrigan and Shale took care of business. But that's the only time I can recall a boss ignored Shale for my character.

Yeah, but you don't get 3 attacks while setting up backstabs. Probably one. It's really easy to get into flanking position (and if you start off with a stun attack, you get there automatically). Besides it isn't extremely relevant against goons. DPS matters most against bosses, where three attacks won't cut it by a long shot. I agree that Tainted Blood should probably not be in the equation, but even without it, daggers and cunning will come out on top. As for equipment, does it matter? The comparison is assuming top of the line equipment for all variations, it's not like one build gets shafted because it has poor weapons. The biggest effect would probably come from removing runes from the equation, since the higher attack speed of the daggers have a big effect there. Even so, cunning variations with the same weapons still outdamage str variations. I will give you that the hit rate is a big factor though and one that is still a bit of a mystery. If higher strength translates into a 10% higher hit rate, then of course things changes.